No-one "can trouble Ganna’s record", former Hour Record holder Alex Dowsett assures

Filippo Ganna’s new hour record is the talk of the town. A debate has already started regarding who is capable of beating the record, and Alex Dowsett, the former record holder, believes that the current generation cannot beat Filippo Ganna's new record distance.

“I think it’s gone. I was surprised, and while we all know Ganna’s ability, I was surprised that he broke it by that much,” Dowsett told VeloNews. He continues, “I thought, and wrongly, that the higher the speed, the more the relationship between power and aerodynamics shifts in favour of aerodynamics. I thought that he’d break it by a little bit because he’s very aero but also very big.”

He went on to explain his reasoning and why it was such a fantastic feat for Ganna to create the new hour record. “The whole that he punches in the air is bigger. To overcome that requires more power, so finding the difference between 56 and 57kph is so much bigger than 45 and 46kph. We’re at the limits of human performance, so small gains are really tough to find. I thought Ganna’s size would impede him more than it did, but it was wonderful to be proven wrong because as someone who knows how hard those lap times are to achieve, to see someone doing 15.2s was just staggering.”

There is a strong belief that Remco Evenepoel and Wout van Aert can beat the record, but Dowsett disagrees. “I’m going to upset all of Belgium, but I struggle to see anyone right now that can break it. The other two strongest time trialists, Wout van Aert and Remco Evenepoel, neither have the extensive track background that Ganna has. I don’t think there’s anyone currently who can trouble Ganna’s record,” concluded Dowsett.